Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76370 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76370 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Understanding washes over me. “You’re second in line.”
“I am fourth in line,” she says tightly.
“But if they skip your nieces, you’re second.”
Malone looks away. “I don’t want the throne. There was a time when I did; it’s the reason I left, because I love my sister too much to unseat her. But I don’t want it now.”
She left Sabine Valley because she loved her sister too much to stage a coup. I don’t know why the thought rocks me. Everything about this conversation is turning my assumptions on their heads. It doesn’t change the core of who Malone is, but…
I need time to process this new information. That’s the only excuse I have for leaning in and kissing her. I can’t say that she commanded me and I’m obeying. It’s pure instinct. I can’t even pretend it’s entirely to distract—either me or her—because a small, traitorous part of me wants to chase away the lost look in her green eyes.
She goes still for the space of a heartbeat, as if I’ve surprised her, and then her hands are in my hair and she’s taking control of the kiss. I find my hands on her shoulders and, when she doesn’t stop me, I skate them down the slice of skin barred by her shirt. Her skin is so soft. I can’t believe I’m allowed to touch her.
I should be grabbing the knife perched at the perfect angle on the table, should be looking for a way to use this vulnerability against her. I just…can’t.
I have time. There will be other opportunities. I tell myself a thousand lies as I slip my hand into her shirt and cup her bare breast. She’s built small and perfect, and she inhales sharply against my mouth when I stroke my thumb over her nipple. Malone lifts her head a little. “So bold.”
“What? I’m not allowed to touch you?”
She shakes her head slowly. “Why did you say yes, Aurora? I know Hades gave you a choice about this assignation. You hate me. Why agree?”
I kiss her again instead of answering. I have a feeling she’ll see through whatever lie I can come up with, and I’m sure as hell not telling her the truth. No matter how carefully she touches me when we’re not in a scene, this woman is a brutal warrior. If she thinks I’m a threat, she’ll slit my throat and deal with the fallout later. And she can deal with the fallout. Hades might be furious, but he’s balanced too precariously to go to war over a single person, no matter how much he cares about me. He’s not the type to let his emotions get the best of him. There will be consequences, yes, but nothing Malone can’t survive.
She allows the kiss for a few long moments and then moves, shoving me back against the cushions on the floor and pushing up my dress to bare me from the waist down. Malone brackets my throat with one elegant hand and shoves two fingers into me with her other. “You don’t want to answer that.”
“No,” I gasp.
“Just like you don’t want to talk about your exes.” She strokes me slowly. “Do your other partners realize how much you keep back, Aurora? How you use sex to deflect from subjects you don’t want to discuss? It’s rather clever.”
I’ve had sex in front of other people more times than I can count. It’s a common occurrence in the Underworld. I’ve acted out fantasies upon fantasies over the years, dredged every single one of mine from the darkness and thrust them into the light. I’ve never done anything like this. We’re outside the kink community, outside the club, outside a personal residence. If someone walks in, they’re not going to expect to find Malone finger fucking me before dinner. It feels almost wrong, but in the most delicious way possible.
Part of that is pure Malone. She’s staring down at me with something wild in those green eyes, something fierce that calls to a part of me I’m still not entirely comfortable with. Her fingers flex at my throat, not cutting off my air at all, but making me feel chained in place. Held down. Captive. She slides her thumb over my clit. “Did you agree to this assignation to punish me?”
Too close to the truth.
I swallow hard, the movement pressing my throat more firmly against her palm. “Why would I want to punish you?” She doesn’t know who I really am. There’s no way she’d interact with me the way she does if she realized the woman she took everything from twenty years ago had a daughter. A daughter Malone is sliding a third finger into right now.
“Could be any number of reasons.” Her cheeks have gone a little pink and her lips are swollen from our kisses, her lipstick a little smeared. She strokes her middle finger against my G-spot, something like pure satisfaction flickering over her expression when I moan. “Maybe because I’ve been ignoring you for so many years.”